The Logjam: Are Our Environmental Laws Failing Us or are We Failing Them?

NYU Environmental Law Journal, Vol. 17, 2008

Breaking the Logjam: Environmental Reform for the New Congress and Administration Paper

16 Pages Posted: 23 Mar 2009 Last revised: 17 May 2009

See all articles by Peter Lehner

Peter Lehner

Earthjustice - Sustainable Food and Farming Program

Abstract

While noting that we have made good progress in cleaning up the environment in the past three decades, this article emphasizes the significant extent to which we have failed to meet many of the goals articulated in the landmark environmental laws of the 1970s. For example, air and water pollution remain persistent problems in many parts of the country notwithstanding the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts; many species remain imperiled although the Endangered Species Act is over three decades old; and NEPA has only partially succeeded in increasing environmental awareness across the federal government. The author's central theme is that the current situation may not be due so much to flaws in the existing statutes as to our failure to follow our environmental laws. He argues that there is not one, large theoretical logjam - such as command and control being an ineffective approach - but that there are many, specific problems of implementation compounded by the corrupting and disproportionate influence of polluters. The article suggests several ways of improving compliance with environmental law, including dramatically stepping up enforcement by all levels of government, increasing the penalties for non-compliance to truly create an economic disincentive for violations, adding pollution fees to existing permit programs to encourage greater compliance, changing the administrative paradigm under which permits are issued to one that defaults to or prefers public health over private pollution as indicated by the environmental laws, and considering the judicial standard of review to give weight to the substantive preferences of the environmental laws.

Suggested Citation

Lehner, Peter, The Logjam: Are Our Environmental Laws Failing Us or are We Failing Them?. NYU Environmental Law Journal, Vol. 17, 2008, Breaking the Logjam: Environmental Reform for the New Congress and Administration Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1367285

Peter Lehner (Contact Author)

Earthjustice - Sustainable Food and Farming Program ( email )

CA
United States

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
67
Abstract Views
683
Rank
608,061
PlumX Metrics